Boston

Stop & Shop is a massive corporation that is probably second only to Dunkin’ Donuts in ubiquity here in New England. Often there’s a Dunkin’ inside the Stop & Shops. What makes those brands stand-ins for our region isn’t their corporate boards and the profits they shovel to shareholders, it’s their employees. They deserve everything and more than what their asking for.

Their strike is now entering its second week and in addition to not crossing picket lines, the employees can use all the support they can get.

I hope they prevail soon. I have to travel all the way to West Roxbury to buy groceries at Roche Bros. instead.

My friend and neighbor Ture Turnbull is running to represent our 11th Suffolk District in Massachusetts’ House of Representatives. If you live in Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Roxbury or Dorchester, you might be in our district. Find out with this simple form, then vote for him on September 4th. I’m so convinced he’s the best choice to represent us, I made my first local issue comic:

In a deep blue state like ours, it would be easy to think midterm primary elections don’t matter. But the State House of Representatives has elected a conservative Speaker who chooses to ignore the Democratic supermajority at his disposal, in favor of tabling bills to protect conservative Democrats like himself from making progressive votes. Our current representative likes Speaker DeLeo’s status quo so much, they voted to end term limits for the guy!

Our State Senate has passed countless progressive pieces of legislation, such as Medicare for All, that have died in House committees, such as Ways & Means, of which the 11th Suffolk incumbent is vice-chair. With Republican governor Charlie Baker, it’s essential both Houses act to resist his catering to Massachusetts’ big business interests and serving the interests of the Trump Regime.

Our electoral process is rigged for incumbents; why else would they schedule the primary the day after Labor Day? On September 4th, show them our deep blue district won’t let Speaker DeLeo continue holding Massachusetts back.

Mayors and governors are debasing themselves and their constituents for the chance to woo Amazon’s second headquarters. Here in Boston, we already did this with GE, a failed Olympic bid, and an indy car race that no one but our Mayor wanted. Thankfully our local sports teams have fully privately funded stadiums, so we didn’t have to endure that nightmare common to other municipalities.

If you don’t live in Boston or follow sports, you might not be aware that Orioles’ player Adam Jones was pelted with peanuts and racist slurs at Fenway Park Monday night.

I happened to be at that game, and didn’t learn about the incidents (plural, since the peanuts and slurs were slung from different parts of the park) until the next day. A lot of Boston sports media and their callers and commenters became defensive idiots, with some even accusing Jones of making the whole thing up.

I believe Jones because I’ve been to Fenway more times than I can count and heard awful shit said in the bleachers and elsewhere in the park. I’ve also been to stadiums in other cities to know none are without racist and homophobic assholes.

Boston fans get famously defensive when things like this happen, which is not a good look. My fellow fans and the media should take a page from the Red Sox organization and condemn the racists in our midst and make them feel unwelcome. And if that doesn’t work, invite Antifa and Black Bloc on your next trip to Friendly Fenway.

As for the NYTimes’ newest columnist, Bret Stephens, his climate change denial is terrible and has no place in any publication that pitches itself with the slogan “The truth is more important now than ever.” But his bigoted “Disease of the Arab mind” comment should disqualify him from being published anywhere outside of 4chan message boards.

If you’re in Boston April 5-29, stop by MassArt’s Brant Gallery to look at my cartoons. A lot of effort and beers went into framing the physical prints, and two digital displays will feature more of my work.

There’s an opening reception Tuesday, April 5th from 5:30 to 7pm. I’ll be giving a talk and a Q&A at 6pm. Here’s their Facebook event page.

The younger Boston Marathon bomber was sentenced to death on Friday. There will be victim impact statements this week, and then the appeals process begins which will drag on until I am old.

I don’t support the death penalty, even for shitty humans like Tsarnaev, and the majority of my neighbors agree. He was tried in Federal court, which sought the death penalty, so only jurors who were open to the idea (or “death qualified” in terrifying legal parlance) of state-sponsored murder were allowed to serve. Those jurors had a terrible job, and I’m sure they performed commendably, but their selection was not representative of the community.

The Richard family, who lost their young son and so much more in the bombing, publicly opposed a death sentence in a moving essay in the Boston Globe. It makes arguments in favor of the death penalty look like nothing more than petty vengeance.